A device driver module on a computing system may be changed for various reasons, but making modifications to an existing device driver module that is in use can be very disruptive, such as by causing other programs to have to be restarted, or in some cases causing a reboot of the computing system. In addition, the advent of virtualization technologies for commodity hardware has introduced further related problems, including when multiple different programs share access to individual hardware devices and other hardware resource, and that access is disrupted due to a change of a corresponding device driver module. Nonetheless, virtualization technologies, such as those provided by XEN, VMWare, or User-Mode Linux, also provide some benefits with respect to allowing various computing resources to be efficiently and securely shared between multiple users and programs. For example, virtualization technologies may allow a single physical computing system to be shared among multiple users by providing each user with one or more virtual machines hosted by the single physical computing system, with each such virtual machine being a software simulation acting as a distinct logical computing system that provides users with the illusion that they are the sole operators and administrators of a given hardware computing resource, while also providing application isolation and security among the various virtual machines.